On Sunday, thousands of Ukrainian citizens rallied against Russian occupation in the south of Ukraine.

A mass civilian protest in Kherson gathered together several thousand people with Ukrainian flags and slogans ‘Kherson is Ukraine’.

Machine gun shots were heard during the rally as Russian troops allegedly tried to stop the protesters.

‘They have weapons but our spirit is much higher’, the protesters said in a statement.

Mass rallies also took place in the occupied Melitopol and Berdiansk.

People claimed they ‘belong to Ukraine and even being shot at they are not conquered’.